Cadets Overcome Early 18-point Deficit To Top Colgate

Sunday, January 3

West Point, N.Y.

2:30 PM

Army West Point

4-3,1-1Patriot

Colgate

1-1,1-1Patriot

Colgate

Army West Point

Cadets Overcome Early 18-point Deficit To Top Colgate

January 03, 2021 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The first nine minutes looked like an early indicator that the Army West Point-Colgate game in Christl Arena on Sunday would be a repeat of the game played 24 hours before in the same building between the same two teams.

Colgate once again opened the game on a tear, shooting 10-for-12 from the field and connected on its first five shots from deep. The Raiders' fifth triple came with just over a minute remaining in the first quarter and gave them the 28-10 advantage, forcing Army head coach Dave Magarity to burn a timeout.

Thankfully for the Army women's basketball team, there was 31 minutes left to play… and the Black Knights made the most of them.

After the timeout, Army went a 24-3 run. Throughout the spurt Army shot 9-for-11 from the floor and with six different players contributing points led by Alisa Fallon's seven.

Colgate fought to hold a 37-35 lead at the break. However, by the five-minute mark of the third quarter the Cadets had built their lead to double-digits thanks to a 17-3 run to start the half.

After trailing by 18 points in the first quarter, the Black Knights went on to win by 19 with a final tally of 72-53.

Fallon finished the contest with 16 points, which was tied Lauren Lithgow for the team-lead. Taylor Sullivan registered her first career double-double with new career highs in points (14) and rebounds (12). The junior forward was an impressive 6-for-8 from the field.

Senior Jessica Rawls corralled a career-high 12 rebounds to go along with seven points in 25 minutes of play. Entering the contest Rawls was averaging just under three minutes of playing time per game.

Army limited Colgate to 8-for-50 (16 percent) from the field in the final three quarters of action. In the same span, the Black Knights were 20-for-37 (54.1 percent) from the floor.

Notes and Highlights

This was Sullivan's second game this season with double-digit rebounds.
The Helena, Mont., native also set a new career high with three blocks.
Fallon matched her career high with seven assists.
This was her fifth consecutive double-digit scoring effort.
Rawls had the highest plus/minus on the team with +29.
Lithgow registered her second consecutive double-digit scoring effort.
The Cadets finished with 38 points in the paint, while limiting Colgate to 12.
The Black Knights also had 15 second chance points.

How It Happened

Army scored first with a strong feed from Fallon on the baseline into Lithgow in the paint for a quick 2-0 lead on their opening drive.
Natalie Stralkus ended a 9-0 run by the Raiders to cut the deficit to 9-5 with a jumper from the perimeter to move the Black Knights within four.
McNaughton hit a trey at 5:14 and their second triple of the game to move the score to 14-8.
Colgate then used a 14-2 run to push ahead 28-10 with just over a minute left in the opening stanza.
Fallon drove to the basket in the final minute to end a 14-2 Colgate run, helping the Black Knights gain some momentum on a follow up box out layup by Rawls.
Taylor Sullivan gave the Black Knights their third consecutive bucket in the early stages of the second with an aggressive take to the basket to give Army a 28-16 advantage.
Army had its 14-0 run snapped by a layup from Keelah Dixon with just over seven minutes remaining. The Black Knights were a perfect 5-for-5 from the field during the stretch.
The Black Knights tied the game up at 31 with 4:28 left in the half on an 8-0 run.
After struggling to find the bottom of the net in the first, Fallon posted seven points in Army's 24-3 run over the first seven minutes of the second. The run allowed Army to gain a 34-31 lead.
Army closed out the half shooting 50 percent from the field.
Despite a two-point deficit at the half, Lithgow gave Army the lead back with a triple to start the third.
McNaughton hit her second 3-pointer of the day only three minutes into the third, giving Army a 43-40 lead. Sullivan followed suit with a layup to improve the lead to five.
Army jumped to its largest lead of the day in the third (47-40) after an 8-0 run, holding the Raiders scoreless for 2:33 minutes.
The Black Knights shot an impressive 60 percent from the field and 75 percent from 3-point range for 24 total points in the third, their highest numbers of the day.
The Black Knights were able to hold Colgate to just seven points in the fourth quarter to keep their lead for a 72-53 final.

FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Dave Magarity
(Ref.: On Sullivan and Rawls stepping up)
"There were a couple of things that happened to today. You had an infusion of energy from Taylor Sullivan and Jessica Rawls. I mean those two brought so much toughness and energy. We outscored them 38-12 in the paint and obviously Taylor had a big hand in that, but we were able to get the ball inside more and we didn't do that yesterday. I'm really proud of how our team played."

Guard Lauren Lithgow
(Ref.: On how the team feels after the win)
"We feel great. After the game yesterday we were excited to only have 22 more hours to get back at them and get the result we wanted. This was our opportunity, and we feel really good right now."

Forward Taylor Sullivan
(Ref.: On the team's performance)
"Nothing was individual. We were running our offense like we know how to run. I had 14 points -- I'd say 10 of those came off my teammates creating for me and I just cut through the lane and made the easy layup. We were so unselfish today from the top to the bottom of the bench. That's what won it. We found openings for each other, we hit the open cutters, we made the extra pass – there was no selfish play today.

UP NEXT
The Black Knights will have a home-and-home series with Holy Cross next weekend in a matchup that pits Dave Magarity against his daughter Maureen, who served as an assistant on his staff at Army from 2006-10. The Cadets will host Holy Cross on Saturday then travel out to Worcester, Mass., for Sunday's matchup. Both games will be broadcast on ESPN+ and are set to start at 3 p.m. ET.